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Actors Countries of Origin

The
objection to Zoe Saldana playing Nina Simone in the film Nina misses the point.Acting is a craft.Actors interpret roles.Halle Berry is not a drug addict because she
played one in Spike Lee’s film, Jungle Fever.

Zoe is
accused of not being an African American.She is or she is not is neither here nor there.There was a role and producers decided that
she was best person to interpret it.

I think
there was also some rumbling about Lupita Nyong’o and Chiwetel Ejiofor in 12
Years a Slave.Some public opinion felt
that those roles should have gone to African American actors.

The objection
to Zoe Saldana as Nina Simone is not new.Maybe jobs are the problem. Ask
South African actors.They bleed every
time another Mandela movie is given to Jennifer Hudson, Terrence Howard, Idris
Elba or Naomie Harris. They should just learn to live with the fact that if money is coming from abroad, the cast will also come from there.

Film
production is a business.Producers want
healthy returns for their investment.They are not in this business to create jobs for actors in South Africa,
United Kingdom or U.S.

Thandie
Newton, a British citizen has worked in many black films and I don’t remember
any suggestion that those roles should have gone to Kimberley Elise, Anika Noni
Rose or Keisha Knight Pulliam.

Producers of
the Nina Simone film did not create the rules.They found them in Hollywood a century back, when black actors were cast
as maids and mammies.

There was a
time when Hollywood screenplays wanted actresses that could ride a horse.That is how many upper class English
actresses got plum roles and most of them moved to America permanently.A British public school accent was also a
visa to fame and fortune.

Another good
example is Anne Hathaway, an American actress.That did not stop her from doing Becoming Jane, based on Jane
Austen.Producers and the director cast
her because they felt she could sell the film at the box office.Nicole Kidman is Australian but she has done
American and British movies.The list
goes on.

Zoe Saldana
is not the problem.It is the way film
production money is raised and that is not going to change, ever.